Sunday, January 30, 2011

Borax Crystals

This was a COOL experiment/craft.

Here is what you will need.....
Borax Laundry Booster
boiling water
jars or glasses
pencils
pipecleaners

Create a shape out of your pipecleaners and attach it to the pencil {either with the pipecleaner or some yarn/string}
Boil water and dissolve Borax into the water - I used about 4-5 tablespoons of Borax per glass.
Put your pipecleaner shape into the glass being sure that it does not touch the sides of the glass.

Note - while Borax is a natural product it should not be consumed or inhaled so be careful and follow the precautions on the box.

Here is our snowflake before adding water to show how it will hang in the glass without touching the walls of the glass.

Here it is after a few hours with crystals starting to form.


Here are the final products after sitting in the solution for 24 hours.

So pretty....

.....and so easy!


38 comments:

  1. Heather, you can also use Borax to make slime. It works very well. Here's a recipe: http://chemistry.about.com/od/chemistryactivities/ss/slimerecipe.htm

    Never thought of using it to make polymer crystals! LOVE that!

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  2. Ummmm polymer crystals? You are such a science smartie :) I just know it makes cool crystals!

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  3. The borax crystallized on the bottom of my glasses and I cannot get it out. Any suggestions?

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  4. So they don't need to be frozen? The crystals form and stay formed after they are removed?

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    Replies
    1. How long do they last. ? Can I use as Christmas gifts

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  5. Can you substitute the Borax Laundry Booster with something else if so what this is for a project

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  6. I wonder if Epsom salt would work the same way.

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  7. So if your making about 28 of this Borax Crystals, we'll have to let them set for 24 hours. I'm trying to do this for my kids in the after school program

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  9. Does the water need to be hot still when you place in the pipe cleaner or can I fix the soulution up the night before?

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  10. I did these ornaments in my art class. We actually coated the pipe cleaners with glow-in-the-dark paint, let them dry, and did the crystals over the paint. Totally works! Takes a long time to charge up the paint though, worked best to put the ornament almost directly on the light source for a couple hours.
    Also colored the water with food coloring to get custom colors.

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  11. No, you can’t in order for this to work the solution needed to be hot. The polymer crystal will only happen when the change in temperature occurs.

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